May the 4th be with you…

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A long time ago in a galaxy far far away' Darth Vader created the ability to take visualized instances and utilize a hypervisor to make them abstract, transportable and ubiquitous.

This was his initial thrust to take on the Empire and dislocate and destroy the server market. Through the aggressive efforts of his loyal Stormtroopers he expanded his disruptive efforts and successfully attacked the desktop, storage and network hardware market leaders.

But as in all good stories, the “good guys” were able to stop the bleeding and stabilize the market and people lived in peaceful coexistence for several years.

However, there were harbingers present of things to come. Darth Vader’ message to Luke Skywalker was clear – “You are unwise to lower your defenses!”

The ultimate use of the Lightsaber known as virtualization altered the world order we knew and loved, however, it was a shift in power that we could understand and adjust to over time.

Perhaps we needed to form new alliances and slightly alter our world view to recapture land lost during the struggle and ultimately the vendor and channel response mimicked the original Star War’s movie –

A New Hope…

While the destruction and devastation brought on by virtualization was immense, the real weapon of ruin created by the Galactic Empire had yet to be unleashed on the Rebel Alliance.

The Empire Strikes Back

The ultimate disruptive weapon of doom, made possible by virtualization, to be unleashed on the Rebel Alliance was the Vibroweapon. The literal translation of Vibroweapon in English is Cloud Computing.

Initially, the superweapon created by the Galactic Empire looked to be impudent. It was revered by some early adopters for its accessibility, scalability, versatility and subscription-based cost structure.

Most mainstream vendors and their channel partners did not see that the Galactic Empire had unleashed this insidious subscription-based monthly recurring revenue consumption model in plain sight.

The Rebel Alliance’ initial response was demure and wreaked of indifference – “fads come and go and this one hasn’t affected me and won’t affect me”. Business has never been better.

As time has passed and we’re now a third of the way through 2017 most of the Rebel Alliance has awoken to the reality that Darth Vader is omnipresent and The Empire Strikes Back – constantly.

You can hunker down and hope that your core business will maintain it’s transitional margin or you can go on the offensive.

Once again, Darth Vader said it best when he said publicly – “You cannot hide forever, Luke."

The Force

Those who say the power and the imminent disruption that would be caused by the Vibroweapon were quick to act and utilize the Force to ensure they could escape the grip of the Galactic Empire and chart their own course to business health and prosperity.

The Force grants several useful powers, such as the ability to sense impending attacks, to deal with change and disruption; influence the thoughts of others. This is known as the Jedi mind trick.

Most importantly, using the Force, they were able to see the future clearly and understand that the Vibroweapon is not the ultimate threat.

Rather, the ultimate threat and danger exists in not being able to transition from highly transactional business model to that of a monthly recurring revenue friendly business mix.

In the words of the great and all-knowing Yoda – “If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are ... a different game you should play”.

Star Wars Epilogue

Understand that change in the form of Darth Vader is altering the business landscape and changing the way clients procure and consume information technology (IT) services.

Many VAR’, IT Solution Providers (ITSP’) and Managed Service Providers (MSP’) think they are ready for the journey, however, they’re not… Many know they need to enter the subscription-based monthly recurring revenue space, however, they don’t know where to start…

No matter where you stand today – begin your subscription-based monthly recurring revenue journey with an assessment of where you stand now and look to uncover the gaps that need to be addressed and closed.

This will ensure that you are positioned to use some Jedi mind tricks and avoid the pitfalls many have encountered on your way to building a stable and scalable hybrid business model that looks at transactional and recurring revenue as equals.